Washed up: David Essex
(Dressler) and Rik Makarem (Emmett) amid the mountains of washing
up

The Dishwashers

Malvern Theatres

***

There is no
doubt that David Essex has become something of an institution in
likeability. He seems tobe a nice chap and even when he gets angry there
is a Jack the Lad, I didn’t really
mean it quality about him but in many
instances that serves to wash out the potential tension in Morris
Panych’s play, The Dishwashers.

It’s set in the basement of some never named
restaurant where the lowly paid dishwashers receive the soiled diners’
pates from the never named staff above. It could be any date in time as
we never exactly find that out but it predates the rise of the machine
as everything is washed by hand.

Essex plays Dressler a man who has spent
considerable time in the dead end job but has come to dispense his own
brand of philosophy on life and the merits of the menial tasks he
performs for the restaurant, elevating then into great art and social
necessity.

He is joined by Emmett, (Rik Makarem) a Yuppie if
that word still exists, who has appeared to have lost a financial
fortune. Again we never find out how he has now ended up dishwashing but
all we know is he is still bitter over his mistakes and fall in social
standing.

The third employee of the still room is Moss
(Andrew Jarvis ) an old wreck of man who has spent his life in
servitude. Whilst he seems harmless he has a cup and saucer short of a
place setting with his disturbing mental flashbacks of images of an
incident that again we never get to find out about.

Panych’s idea is that great wisdom or character
does not have to come from those who aspire to the limelight but simple
folk who inhabit the edges of our lives with unnoticed but still worthy
jobs.

The problem with Dishwashers is, that whilst
there is a lot of talking, no one really has anything to say. Panych
fails to break any one of his characters into a definitive conclusion
about anything and the what ifs pile up higher than the dishes.
In the end there so much you want to know but are never told that you
just don’t care.

Dressler more than once says to Emmet that he
finds something he has said interesting as if he now has wisdom on the
matter. Then when questioned `if he finds it interesting?’ Dressler
replies `no’ and changes the subject. The response raises a laugh or two
but the constant change of direction leaves the subject unanswered and
it’s this kind of frivolity in the dialogue that makes the whole play
hard to get a grip on.

What is also unnerving is director Nikolai Foster
handling of the scene changes. Previously used to large spectaculars in
the West End each scene is closed with a dramatic black shutter effect
and with a thunderous, percussive and electronic soundtrack. It all
promises the next scene will build to an even greater degree only to
open again to more of the same. In the end the effect becomes tiresome
and an unnecessary inclusion on what is often a quiet introspective and
intellectual view of life.

Young Emmet is chastised throughout for his
ambition to want to rebuild his life and escape the prison of the
washroom but towards the end I found myself siding and agreeing with him
having similar feelings myself but stayed till the final curtain anyway.

It’s not all bad , there are moments of poignancy
and Essex shows some depth as an actor However if he needs, or even if
he is looking, for greater acceptance of his ability, then Dishwashers
won’t exactly send his career down the plughole but it won’t put him in
the top drawer either. To 22-03-14.